Sissy's Alright

[saskhab]

http://blogs.thescore.com/nhl/2010/01/18/j...eks-bad-season/

Great stuff here. Jaro Spacek is getting the run around by Habs fans, and I didn't quite understand why to be honest. His shot hasn't been on target, but other than that, I thought he had done his job.

Basically: the giveaways stats are total junk. Montreal's stats man is ridiculous, and he counts WAY ABOVE THE LEAGUE AVERAGE for things like giveaways, hits, and blocked shots. The first guy to be fired in Montreal should not be Gainey or Martin, but this guy so we can actually view our players with some objectivity.

Plus, he has less points because he's playing a defensive role with reduced PP time. He is averaging over a minute less PP time than last year in Buffalo, and he is on the ice for way less offensive zone faceoffs and way more defensive zone faceoffs than before. In short, he's being asked to be a defensive d-man, and at +6 and one of our leaders in ice time, he's doing his job quite fine.

[JoeLassister]

All I know is that at 3,833M$, I'd like to see more offense from him and more good passes from him. I don't think he's doing fine on the PP in terms of quality passing + creating scoring opportunities.

I just hope he can bring something more until the end of the season.

[Fanpuck33]

All I know is that at 3,833M$, I'd like to see more offense from him and more good passes from him. I don't think he's doing fine on the PP in terms of quality passing + creating scoring opportunities.

Yup. They brought in Spacek to do more than play defense. He was brought in to partner with Markov on the top powerplay unit. He was the one who needed to step up when Markov went out, instead it was Bergeron. Now Spacek only sees 2nd unit duties. He hasn't been bad, but he also hasn't been that good.

[rafikz]

He seems to be out of shape

[Chris]

My only problem with him is he is missing the net way too much. Other then that, he does an ok job.

I thought this thread was about the Habs being Sissy's and easy to paly against. I guess not.

[Habsfan]

Spacek hasn't hit the net from the point in over a month. And that doesn,t include the alarming number of times that he completely misses his shot.(ie: the puck jumps over his stick, or he doesn't get a decent shot from the point).

At almost 4 million$ per year, he is Bob's biggest mistake this year, let's not forget that he has 3 more years to go, and he'll soon be 36 years old. Even if Spacek decides to retire, we are screwed(we'd be stuck with his salary).

Edited January 19, 2010 by Habsfan

[The Chicoutimi Cucumber]

Yup. They brought in Spacek to do more than play defense. He was brought in to partner with Markov on the top powerplay unit. He was the one who needed to step up when Markov went out, instead it was Bergeron. Now Spacek only sees 2nd unit duties. He hasn't been bad, but he also hasn't been that good.

That pretty much nails it. My disappointment in Spacek is not based on stats, which I don't pay much attention to anyway, it's based on observation of his play. I thought he might become our secret weapon this year, the Streit replacement (in the sense of being the #2 PP guy to Markov) we've needed. Nope. For us, he's been a competent defender, nothing more, and certainly not especially effective in helping our transition game or PP.

But he's been used on the wrong side. This is another consideration that makes it very hard to get an accurate bead on his capabilities.

[Habsy]

I'd take Spacek over Komisarek any day, just look at the disaster he is in Toronto. The fact that he's always playing on the wrong side, on the powerplay, was even discussed on local radio. It's often mentioned here, on this site. He's never in position to receive a pass, and then makes an awkward play. It's january, and the coaches haven't made an adjustment. I'm Hal Gill at the keyboard, seems Mr. Cucumber posted the same out of position comment as I was typing it.

Edited January 19, 2010 by Habsy

[The Chicoutimi Cucumber]

I'd take Spacek over Komisarek any day, just look at the disaster he is in Toronto. The fact that he's always playing on the wrong side, on the powerplay, was even discussed on local radio. It's often mentioned here, on this site. He's never in position to receive a pass, and then makes an awkward play. It's january, and the coaches haven't made an adjustment. I'm Hal Gill at the keyboard, seems Mr. Cucumber posted the same out of position comment as I was typing it.

Hal Gill

The coaches use Spacek there because they have to, not because they want to. No point in blaming Martin for having too many L defencemen.

[sakiqc]

http://blogs.thescore.com/nhl/2010/01/18/j...eks-bad-season/

Great stuff here. Jaro Spacek is getting the run around by Habs fans, and I didn't quite understand why to be honest. His shot hasn't been on target, but other than that, I thought he had done his job.

Basically: the giveaways stats are total junk. Montreal's stats man is ridiculous, and he counts WAY ABOVE THE LEAGUE AVERAGE for things like giveaways, hits, and blocked shots. The first guy to be fired in Montreal should not be Gainey or Martin, but this guy so we can actually view our players with some objectivity.

Plus, he has less points because he's playing a defensive role with reduced PP time. He is averaging over a minute less PP time than last year in Buffalo, and he is on the ice for way less offensive zone faceoffs and way more defensive zone faceoffs than before. In short, he's being asked to be a defensive d-man, and at +6 and one of our leaders in ice time, he's doing his job quite fine.

Fire the stats guy, haha that's funny. Spacek DOES turn the puck over A LOT. He is erratic with the puck and doesn't seem confortable at all on the right side. Even on the power play, just notice when he is at the point and you'll see players avoiding as much as possible to pass him the puck unless they have really no other option. He's screwing up a lot of plays offensively. I'm not worrying about him scoring points. What I'm expecting from him is to play with the confidence of a 11-year NHL veteran. I don't know if he's hurt or what but he doesn't seem to keep the pace in the defensive zone and is not more fiable than O'Byrne. I thought that Spacek was at the same level of Hamrlik, if not better. Maybe that's why I'm very disapointed by his performance so far.

[saskhab]

All things considered, the guy's doing a good job in a different role this year. How is he supposed to get a lot of points if he's starting his shifts in the defensive zone more than the offensive zone consistently? And despite all this, he has a positive ratio when it comes to the team average in terms of shots for and against: the team is much worse at preventing shots on goal when Spacek is on the bench than when he's on the ice, even though he typically starts his shift in the defensive zone.

There are a lot of stats out there that are junk (remember when Steve Bégin and Chad Kilger were leading the league in hits? Yeah, they weren't, it was our trigger happy Bell Centre stat guy). The ones that aren't junk and easy to qualify suggest he's doing fairly well in his role.

And Bob's biggest dud signing was definitely Mara. He's done nothing at either end of the ice that has been a positive.

[dlbalr]

Fire the stats guy, haha that's funny. Spacek DOES turn the puck over A LOT. He is erratic with the puck and doesn't seem confortable at all on the right side. Even on the power play, just notice when he is at the point and you'll see players avoiding as much as possible to pass him the puck unless they have really no other option. He's screwing up a lot of plays offensively. I'm not worrying about him scoring points. What I'm expecting from him is to play with the confidence of a 11-year NHL veteran. I don't know if he's hurt or what but he doesn't seem to keep the pace in the defensive zone and is not more fiable than O'Byrne. I thought that Spacek was at the same level of Hamrlik, if not better. Maybe that's why I'm very disapointed by his performance so far.

It's not that crazy an idea, a few of us have brought up the ridiculous stat stuff several times - technically, having this hurts the team at contract time: "Hey, I was in the top-25 in the league in hits, that makes me worth more." Of course, the reality is that most Habs this season aren't in the top 250 in the league in that department.

HW, where unique firing ideas come to life: Fire the stats guy and the capologist (within the last month alone). Who says you don't get unique banter here?

[MFT77]

All things considered, the guy's doing a good job in a different role this year. How is he supposed to get a lot of points if he's starting his shifts in the defensive zone more than the offensive zone consistently? And despite all this, he has a positive ratio when it comes to the team average in terms of shots for and against: the team is much worse at preventing shots on goal when Spacek is on the bench than when he's on the ice, even though he typically starts his shift in the defensive zone.

There are a lot of stats out there that are junk (remember when Steve Bégin and Chad Kilger were leading the league in hits? Yeah, they weren't, it was our trigger happy Bell Centre stat guy). The ones that aren't junk and easy to qualify suggest he's doing fairly well in his role.

And Bob's biggest dud signing was definitely Mara. He's done nothing at either end of the ice that has been a positive.

I agree that Mara's play has been much worse than Spacek. I have no problem is Mara is shipped outta here soon and OB takes his place.

[sakiqc]

It's not that crazy an idea, a few of us have brought up the ridiculous stat stuff several times - technically, having this hurts the team at contract time: "Hey, I was in the top-25 in the league in hits, that makes me worth more." Of course, the reality is that most Habs this season aren't in the top 250 in the league in that department.

HW, where unique firing ideas come to life: Fire the stats guy and the capologist (within the last month alone). Who says you don't get unique banter here?

Haha yeah, nowhere else

Anyways, stats in account or not, Spacek needs to step it up

[Dalhabs]

He seems to be out of shape

I say it again, he looks like John Candy

http://www.imdb.com/media/rm3820395776/nm0001006

http://www.habsnews.ca/jaroslav_spacek.jpg

Edited January 19, 2010 by Dalhabs

[Varlan]

http://blogs.thescore.com/nhl/2010/01/18/j...eks-bad-season/

Great stuff here. Jaro Spacek is getting the run around by Habs fans, and I didn't quite understand why to be honest. His shot hasn't been on target, but other than that, I thought he had done his job.

Basically: the giveaways stats are total junk. Montreal's stats man is ridiculous, and he counts WAY ABOVE THE LEAGUE AVERAGE for things like giveaways, hits, and blocked shots. The first guy to be fired in Montreal should not be Gainey or Martin, but this guy so we can actually view our players with some objectivity.

Plus, he has less points because he's playing a defensive role with reduced PP time. He is averaging over a minute less PP time than last year in Buffalo, and he is on the ice for way less offensive zone faceoffs and way more defensive zone faceoffs than before. In short, he's being asked to be a defensive d-man, and at +6 and one of our leaders in ice time, he's doing his job quite fine.

Spacek has been terrible in every aspect of his game with maybe the exception of his skating. Terrible zone coverage. Shot is next to non-existent. Bad passes leading to giveaways. The thing you so easily dismissed as a stats anomaly or biased stats recording. I have watched every single game the habs have played this season, and that stat does not surprise me in the least.

Then we go with the plus minus. Hes playing with our top six forwards almost all the time. Not only that hes always paired with Markov or Hamrlik. So the decent plus minus doesn't surprise me. Stick him with the bottom six and he will have a plus minus similar to Mara.

I am very disappointed in his play this year. Much of can't be blamed on playing the wrong side. Like all the brutal giveaways you seem to have forgotten or ignored or the awesome shot the doesn't seem to exist. Some like his zone coverage can be blamed on playing the wrong side.